At some point, I will have the American president involved in the story. I have a poll up on my profile, so go there and vote for the American president! No citizenship required!


"What do you make of this?" Ledgett asked as soon as John entered his old boss's office.

Ledgett was pointing to a picture that sat on the Oak desk and was among piles of paperwork and files. John walked up to the desk and picked up the picture to get a good look at it as he sat down.

The picture was of a large egg. A large Zerg egg. It was on what looked like a rocky shoreline next to the ocean, but that did not make sense. As far as anyone knew, the Zerg had never been to an ocean or any large body of water.

"Where is this?" John asked.

"Tel Aviv, Israel. Three hours ago."

"Israel?" Now John was really confused. "How would a Zerg egg end up in Israel?"

"I don't know, but I need you to find out."

"Why me?"

"Because you have more experience with the Zerg than anyone, and you aren't an active agent. Do you want to go to Israel?"

"You want me to go to a country that is at war with countries twenty times its size and investigate a mysterious egg that may contain an extremely deadly creature?" He paused and thought about his options. "Sounds a lot more fun than what I was doing. I'm in."

"Good! I was worried that I would have to find someone else. Now, I can't give you your gun and badge back, and I won't be the one paying you."

"Why not? Who will be paying me?"

"Because you aren't an active agent! You have been suspended and you are using your time off to see the beautiful beaches of Tel Aviv. You will stumble across a strange egg on the Tel Aviv Marina, and the Department of Defense will give you money in return for an eye witness account of what you see."

John slowly replied. "Riiight."

"Oh, I almost forgot." Ledgett said as he began shuffling through the clutter on his desk. "Ah, here we are. A ticket and boarding pass to Ben-Gurion airport in Tel Aviv. It's thirteen hours, so bring a pillow." He held out the ticket with a proud demeanor.

"Okay." John said as he took the pieces of paper and looked at them.

"You should get packing. Your flight leaves in three hours."

John looked up in horror.

"What? It took me longer than I thought it would to contact you. You wouldn't answer your cell phone."

John recomposed himself. "You're crazy." Was all he said before he rushed out of the office.

"You just now figuring that out Dillinger?" He heard Ledgett calling from the office as he made his way to the elevator.


John sat in the window seat just over the wing of the Airbus as it took off. He had barely made it to the terminal in time, and would have missed the flight if anything had gone wrong. Thankfully, the whole process had gone relatively smoothly and surprisingly quickly.

He didn't have time to pack much in the way of clothes or entertainment or...anything at all. He had an extra change of clothes, but he was still wearing his Saver's Choice uniform and would be changing into his normal clothes as soon as possible.

John spent the next thirteen hours eating okay-ish airplane food and trying to get as much restless sleep as he could. He had changed clothes in the bathroom once the plane finished ascending from takeoff. It was no small feat either. The bathroom was as small as a portable restroom, and the toilet took up half of the room.


John finally made it to Tel Aviv. He did not have to wait for his luggage when he exited the plane, for all he had was a backpack that now had his Saver's Choice uniform inside it.

After changing all of his American Dollars to Israeli Shekels, John checked his phone. It was 5:35 P.M. local time. Almost twenty hours after the egg was discovered. He connected to the airport Wi-Fi and mapped out a route to the Tel Aviv marina. It would take about forty five minutes by car or fifty minutes on foot. He was not sure of how long he would be in Israel or of how much a taxi would cost. Thus, he decided to walk.

About an hour later, John arrived at the marina. The breakwater that the egg was on was blocked off by police, and there was a group of people standing near the barrier. The egg was clearly visible in the afternoon sun. In fact, it looked much larger in real life than it had in the picture. In the picture, it looked to be about seven feet tall, but here it looked closer to thirteen or fourteen feet tall.

John looked down at his watch. It was 6:30. Twenty one hours after the FBI were notified about the egg. He knew from his experience with the Lair in America, Zerglings took about seventeen hours to hatch from a larvae. The result was a pair of nightmare-twin monsters. What could be growing within an egg that has been growing for twenty one hours? Better yet, how long would it be before it hatched?

John watched the egg for quite some time before deciding to find a hotel to stay at. He found a room on the second floor of a hotel that bordered the beach. He could even see the egg from his balcony, or at least he would be able to if he had a very good pair of binoculars. The view and hotel were great, and cost was amazing: nearly 200 shekels per night or just over $50. The hotel was clearly for tourists, and the war had run most people off. The regular price per night would have been about four times that he paid.


May woke. She was stiff all over, and cramped in a small space. A very small space. Her head was tucked under her wing, and, for the most part, she could not move. She knew that she was in her egg, and acted accordingly. She began trying to scratch her way out of the egg with her fingernails; fingernails that she found to be more like claws. It was a very slow process due to her extremely limited movement, but after a few minutes she managed to break through the egg shell with one of her claws.

Through the process, she learned a little bit about her physical makeup. She no longer had hands. In fact, she no longer had arms either. Instead, she had talons like a bird that were on the ends of two front legs. At the end of her front legs, three slightly webbed claws faced foreword while one claw acted similarly to a thumb and faced backward. She continued to claw at the shell until she could fit her front right talon through. She continued to break away pieces of shell, and as she did, she gained room to use leverage to more easily break away the shell.

Several more minutes later, she had broken enough of her shell to fit her right wing through the hole. Her head was still tucked away under her left wing, so she still could not see anything. She was far to focused on getting out of her tiny home to notice the muffled and alarmed voices coming from outside of her shell.

She continued her work on the shell until her back right leg was free. She began feeling around with it, and found that it was, like her front leg, a talon with four claws; three claws were in the front, while one was in the back.

After what felt like an eternity, she managed to open a large enough hole in the egg to pull her head from under her left wing. Unfortunately, when she did, her center of mass moved from inside the egg to outside of the egg. She began to fall out, and when she tried to catch herself, she slipped on an algae covered rock. She floundered to catch herself as she tumbled into a bunch of water. Disoriented and waterlogged, May managed to scramble back to the rocky shore.

Now breathing heavily from both her tedious exertion from escaping the egg and the sudden exertion of escaping the sea, May lay on the rocks for several moments with her eyes closed.

Remembering what she wanted herself to look like before she entered the egg, May turned her head to get a good look at herself. She was big. Not fat, but large overall. She had thick armor all over her body, and it was all a medium brown color. Her wings came out of her back just behind her shoulder blades, and bone-like spines protruded vertically from her spine from the base of her neck to the end of her tail. She smiled. It had worked.

Before she began her transformation, she decided that she needed to look like something people would recognize. She decided on a dragon, and modeled herself after that. Now she looked like a skinnier, more graceful version of Draco from Dragonheart, one of her favorite movies.

Proud of herself, May began examining herself more closely and discovered a red spot on her right side. It was to bright to be blood, and it seemed to glow. She licked at it, but it did not go away. Confused, May turned her head to see if a similar spot was on her left side, but nothing was there. She turned back to her right side and noticed that the red dot moved on its own. A laser.

May watched its movement and shape to figure out its origin. She looked to where she thought the laser would be and saw a tall building that looked to be about sixteen stories tall. It was far enough away that May would normally need binoculars to see where the laser came from, but with her improved vision, May could easily see the sniper-spotter team on the roof of the building.

It seemed that she had gotten the attention that she had wanted, so she decided to make the best of it. She began to take in her surroundings instead of her own appearance. There were a line of what looked like police about thirty yards away in the direction of the shore. Each officer had his/her weapon drawn and aimed at her. Behind the police officers, at the edge of the shore stood another line of people. Each person had his/her camera out and pointed towards her.

The Zerg was going to become very public very soon.

May looked once again to the line of police officers. Without looking away, she climbed the breakwater until the ground was level beneath her. Then she turned to face them head on. The laser now pointed at her chest.

May figured

that standing around would not help anyone, and addressed the far away police.

"I have heard that Israel is in need of allies. My people are in a similar situation, and we have a common enemy." She loudly said in Arabic. "I would like to make an agreement with this nation."

Nobody spoke. Nobody even breathed. The only sounds that broke the silence were either coming from the city or from the waves breaking on the beach. The silence dragged on for almost a minute before May spoke again.

"Does anybody here speak Arabic?" She asked in Arabic. No response. "How about English? Does anyone speak English?" She asked in English. Again, no response.

"Look, if you want help in fighting I.S.I.S., then somebody needs to start talking."

A man holding a megaphone approached the police line. Once he reached the line, he hesitantly raised the megaphone and began speaking in Arabic.

"What are you?"

"That is a very good question." May paused. "I suppose that I am a dragon."

The man thought for a moment.

"Where did you come from?"

With her head, May gestured toward the egg behind her.

"That egg."

Again, he took a moment to think.

"How could you help us fight I.S.I.S.?\

"By providing an army, but I will want something in return."

The man paused to think again.

"Wait here for a moment. I don't think that I can speak for Israel."

The man then turned around and walked back to the beach where he was greeted by dozens of reporters begging for an interview.

May sighed and began taking everything in. It was dark out, and the Mediterranean Sea behind her blended into the night sky, making the horizon difficult to spot. In front of her, Tel Aviv was lit up along the beach by tall buildings that she assumed were hotels. A few people were looking out their windows to try to get a good view of her. At the edge of the beach where the breakwater began, was the group of reporters.

They were all moving around trying to get a better shot of her, and several were standing with their backs facing her while speaking to the camera. Almost everyone in that area was doing something to get a better view. Almost. There was a lone man standing away from the rest. He simply stood and stared. He appeared to be thinking deeply. She extended her long neck into the air in an attempt to get a better view of the man's face. He seemed familiar, but she could not get a good enough look at him to be able to recognize him. The dark night and the distance combined with the heavy backlight coming from Tel Aviv obscured the man's face.

"Erhem."

Someone cleared their throat. The sound, coming from the police line, snapped May back into the moment. Looking to the police line, she found a new man holding the megaphone.

"Hello." She replied.

"What's your name?"

"I haven't been named yet. Call me dragon."

Of course she could have given the man her real name, but she did not want to be on the news as May Flowers. She wanted to live a normal life outside of the Swarm, and decided that having one identity for the leader of the Zerg and one for her normal self would be better in the long run.

"Okay...dragon...what do you want with Israel?"

"I want the Zerg to be independent, and I think that Israel can help me. I also know that I can help Israel. I want to trade."

"I think that we need to discuss this somewhere private."

"I am a dragon. Even if you do find a place that we can talk in private, how do you plan on getting me there?"

"A place has been found already. Can you fly?"

May extended her wings and looked them over. She had been able to get off of the ground as a human, but she was not sure how difficult flying would be as a dragon. "I can try."

"If you can, then helicopters are on their way to escort you."

"What do you want me to do until then?"

"Just wait."

"Okay."

The man then moved the megaphone to his side and began to turn away. As May waited for the helicopters, she looked back to the lone man who stood away from everyone. His face was as obscured as before, and she still could not recognize him.

Several minutes passed before May heard a chopping sound coming from the city. It grew louder and louder until two helicopters appeared over the tall buildings.

"Follow the helicopter with the blinking light."

She heard someone say over the megaphone.

She nodded her head exaggeratedly to let the person know that she understood.

The two helicopters were very different. One was small and looked like it could fit a maximum of two people in it, including the pilot. It had a clear rounded window that covered the front and gave the pilot a large field of vision. The window also gave the helicopter's body a bubble-like shape.

The other helicopter was much larger, and looked like it might be able to hold two people, but May couldn't tell. It had a narrower but more sturdy looking body. On either side of the body were two, approximately one yard long, arms that stuck out level with the ground. On the arms were two miniguns, and what May assumed to be a rocket launcher.

Of course, the bubble shaped helicopter had the blinking light on it. May began flapping her wings as the two helicopters hovered above her. May leapt into the air with all her might as she flapped her wings. As soon and she was airborne, the helicopter with the blinking light began to drift away from her.

At first, May had trouble staying airborne. She found it difficult to fly at slow speeds, but as the helicopter in front of her picked up pace, flying became easier.

May found that she could glide easily without flapping her wings, something that was far more difficult in her human form. She ended up going at a comfortable pace headed to the North. May always kept an eye behind her, as the weaponized helicopter followed at a distance.

The brightly lit city to her right gradually transformed into a dark countryside as she followed the helicopter. The ease of flying as a dragon caused May to enjoy it much more.

Unfortunately, her flight was not as long as she would have liked, for the lead helicopter began descending toward a large warehouse several miles outside of Tel Aviv.

The leading helicopter landed on the ground about twenty yards away from the front to the warehouse, while the heavily armed trailing helicopter began circling the area. May landed far enough away from the grounded helicopter for there to be no risk of her wings hitting the spinning blades as they began winding down.

The area was well lit, and everything could be clearly seen, even for the average person.

Around her were about a dozen soldiers. None of them were pointing their weapons at her, but all of them looked ready to kill.

"Wait here until you are instructed otherwise." A voice to her left shouted over the sound of the slowing blades of the helicopter.

She turned to see who spoke, and saw a soldier standing between her and the helicopter.

She did not like waiting. She decided to check on her swarm, for she had not done so since she hatched.

"Matilda, how are we doing today?"

"We have twenty one Hatcheries that will be complete within twenty four hours, a Greater Spire, and an Ultralisk cavern. The swarm is at maximum efficiency."

"Good. I do like an efficient swarm. When the new Hatcheries are finished, begin production of Mutalisks and Scourges; I want two hundred Mutalisks and four hundred Scourges. I also want one hundred Ultralisks. Once you finish that, I want three hundred Lurkers and fifty Brood Lords. Got that?"

"Yes, my queen."

"I have told you not to call me that."

"I know."

"Then why do you?"

"Because it is the truth."

"It just makes me feel uncomfortable when you speak to me like I am...a...queen. I just don't like it."

"Is there something else I should call you?"

"Just call me May."

"That is an unusual thing to call you."

"It's my name."

"I did not know."

"I never told you my name?"

"No."

That was odd. She never told Matilda her name, yet she spoke to her daily. How could she forget to tell Matilda her name?

"Sorry. I guess I never thought I needed to tell you."

"There is no need to apologize May. Names mean little to me."

May chuckled.

"You made that quite clear."

Their mental conversation went silent for several moments.

"What do you plan to do next May?"

"If the Israelis accept our help, then we will prepare to defend Israel and invade the I.S.I.S. nations."

"In what way does assisting Israel benefit the swarm?"

"We need someone to support us publicly, and we need to prove ourselves to the world without creating panic. If we were to attack I.S.I.S. without anyone knowing why, then people would be afraid that they would be attacked next."

"Why do we need the world to be unafraid of us? If they are afraid of us, wouldn't they be afraid of attacking us? If the swarm is unchallenged, can we not grow faster?"

Matilda must have been in a very curious mood.

"People are often more dangerous and unpredictable when they feel threatened or afraid. If they fear us, they will unite to destroy us. If we are the common enemy of the world, then we will be attacked from all sides by forces that even the swarm cannot hold back."

"So we ally ourselves with Israel to keep the rest of the world calm and peaceful?"

"Exactly." May replied, thankful that Matilda was showing potential.

"What will the swarm do after Israel is secure?"

"Right now, we don't know how people will react to our existence, but as we fight alongside Israel, we will be able to judge the reactions of the world. The way that they react to us will determine the way we react to their reaction.

"I see. So, there is not enough information to make a decision right now?"

"Yes and no." May replied.

"I do not understand."

"Although we don't know how the world will react to our revelation, we can formulate ideas

on how we should respond to various outcomes. If we sit idle and observe, we will constantly be forced to play catch-up. We must anticipate the possible reactions of the world and formulate ways to respond to these possible outcomes.

May continued. "If we find that the world hates us, we need to act differently from how we would act if they embraced us."

Matilda thought for a moment before replying. "What then should we do if the world seeks to destroy us?"

"That depends." May replied.

"On what does it depend?" Matilda asked.

As May and Matilda continued their conversation, they drifted into the world of politics, economics, deception, diplomacy, and corruption. Together, they addressed many of the possible outcomes of the Zerg's revelation to the world.

Some outcomes resulted in World War III, and others resulted in world peace. In-between the two extremes was where the majority of the outcomes ended up.

Matilda had no concept of what was and was not outside of the realm of reason, and did not fully understand why some of here suggestions were not sensible. In spite of Matilda's relative ignorance, May was proud of her. She had a thirst for knowledge that rivaled May's own.


Special thanks to for helping me create two more flags! When I pictured the flag you suggested, it seemed like a great idea, but when I tried to creat it, I could not get it to look the way I think that you wanted it. :( However, I did create two more flags with your help! They are now with the other flags on DeviantArt Thanks dude!

On a different note, I am thinking of making the next chapter into the full conversation between May and Matilda near the end of this chapter. They will continue their discussion of what could be, what people may do, and how the swarm could respond. If you guys want to see the full conversation, let me know! However, if you do not want me to waste time on a conversation that will not advance the story, then let me know that also!

BTW, if I do post the conversation as the next chapter, you will not have to read it to understand anything later on. The conversation will simply be a series of "what ifs" and then ways that the Zerg could respond to the "what ifs."

As always, thanks for reviewing! If I was unclear about anything in this story so far, PLEASE tell me! What good is a story if it doesn't make sense, right?